Binance May Have Been the Victim of the Largest Cryptocurrency Theft in History — WSJ

The cyberattack on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange that occurred on October 29 could be the largest theft of digital assets in the industry's history, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“It looks like this is indeed a hack of Binance. User funds are safe,” wrote Binance founder Changpeng Zhao—who no longer leads the company but remains its largest shareholder—on the social media platform X. He reported that the stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle promptly froze the stolen assets, totaling approximately $1.7 billion.

However, cybersecurity experts interviewed by the WSJ believe that the actual scale of the theft could be significantly larger. Taylor Monahan of the blockchain security group SEAL 911 estimated the losses at “substantially more than $2 billion” and possibly as high as $5.5 billion, noting that “the situation is evolving rapidly, and exact figures will not be confirmed immediately.” Several other experts contacted by the WSJ estimated the amount to be more than $5.5 billion.

Until now, the 2025 hack of the Bybit exchange—in which North Korea-linked hackers stole $1.5 billion—was considered the largest theft in the crypto industry.

Binance stated that its security teams are analyzing all available information and that users' funds are safe.

Kevin March, co-founder of JPEG Trading, called the losses “a significant blow in absolute terms,” but expects them to be manageable for Binance—thanks to the exchange’s $1.2 billion insurance fund and the swift freezing of assets by Tether and Circle. The exchange’s U.S. division, Binance.US, stated that it was not affected by the incident.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor